✨ “Good Education Means to Create Disobedience” — Learning from Dr. Nawal El Saadawi
- Sasha Tanoushka BCH IACT
- Nov 3
- 3 min read
Egyptian physician, psychiatrist, author, and lifelong dissident Dr. Nawal El Saadawi once said:
“Good education means to create disobedience.”
She didn’t mean chaos or rebellion for rebellion’s sake — she meant awakening.
For El Saadawi, to be educated was to unlearn obedience to injustice, to dismantle the systems that numb curiosity, and to restore truth as an act of service.
🕊 A Life That Challenged Silence
Dr. El Saadawi (1931 – 2021) grew up in a conservative Egyptian village and trained as a physician at Cairo University. Her early work in medicine exposed her to the suffering of women subjected to gender-based violence and inequality — realities most preferred not to see. She spoke, wrote, and organized anyway.
In 1981, she was imprisoned by the Egyptian government for her outspoken views on women’s rights, freedom of thought, and religious authoritarianism. Even in prison, she kept writing — using toilet paper and eyeliner to record her thoughts. Those writings later became Memoirs from the Women’s Prison, a testament to her courage and conviction.
She once told the BBC that “the most dangerous woman is the one who thinks.”
That danger, in truth, was her brilliance — the fearless insistence that education must free, not domesticate.
🧠 Neuroscience & the Freedom to Think
Her call for “disobedience” echoes what neuroscience now confirms: novelty and curiosity are essential for brain growth.
When we challenge our assumptions — when we explore rather than repeat — our brains release dopamine, which strengthens new synaptic pathways and supports neuroplasticity.
Learning that is purely repetitive (memorizing, regurgitating, conforming) activates the stress response and narrows our cognitive flexibility. But learning that’s playful, daring, and embodied widens perception, empathy, and problem-solving.
In modern classrooms and workplaces, this means creativity > compliance, questions > answers, dialogue > dictation.
🌍 Education as Collaboration
Dr. El Saadawi saw education as a living dialogue — between teacher and student, between body and mind, between self and society.
Today, that vision is unfolding in synergistic learning spaces around the world: classrooms where students co-design projects, labs that blend art and science, and global hubs (like Yorkseed) where community replaces hierarchy.
When we teach each other through experience, humility, and shared purpose, the old model of “teacher above student” collapses — and collective intelligence rises.
🎶 A Soundtrack for Evolution
Daft Punk’s “Around the World” is more than an electronic anthem — it’s a sonic metaphor for neuroplasticity.
The same beat repeats, but every loop evolves slightly — just as neurons strengthen through rhythm and variation.
That’s education at its best: repetition with change, pattern with progress.
💫 How We Integrate This in
Thiscourse™
In Thiscourse™, we combine brain science, hypnotherapy, and community learning to help people step beyond autopilot into intentional growth.
For men and women alike, this means:
Rewiring old habits through neuro-disentrainment
Reclaiming confidence and purpose through subconscious re-alignment
Reconnecting with others through collaborative learning and service
We’re not anti-education — we’re anti-stagnation.
We believe that learning should liberate, energize, and evolve consciousness itself.
🌿 What Dr. El Saadawi Still Teaches Us
Courage is a curriculum. It’s learned by doing what feels impossible.
Curiosity is sacred. It’s how consciousness renews itself.
Service is the outcome. True education makes us more capable of compassion and contribution.
So yes — let’s honor her call for creative “disobedience.”
Let’s question what we’re told, keep what’s true, and redesign what’s outdated.
Let’s build education that grows the whole human: body, brain, and spirit.
Because when the mind is free, the system shifts — and humanity moves forward.
Join the movement.
Next Thiscourse™ intake opens soon — a 30 -day journey to realign your nervous system, unlock creativity, and live from clarity instead of conditioning.
🎧 Soundtrack: “Around the World” — Daft Punk
Comments